Are you leading a creative team and supporting their highest level of engagement? If your organization is depending on your teams’ creativity and productivity, use these four tips to keep things humming.
Provide Clear Guidelines
Many creative teams started out working in a single office setting. Today, with new workplace policies, people may be working remotely some or all of the week. This means a radical shift in how you set goals and provide guidelines.
Many creative team leaders are finding that clear guidelines help creative teams work better. If your team has set processes in place, they won’t waste time with unnecessary meetings, email confusion, or vague expectations.
In the beginning, set the standards for communication, workflow, and group decision-making. This can seem a little awkward at first, especially if you’re just finding your way with new team members.
Set explicit guidelines for things such as:
- Names and terms used in your creative workflow.
- Chain of command on decisions.
- Expectations of timing in response to emails, phone calls, and queries.
- Protocols for video conferencing.
Ask your team for input so you can create guidelines that help your team work smarter—not harder. While it can seem counterintuitive to be structured in a creative team, this single practice can be the start of super-charged productivity.
Refine Hiring Practices
As you are working with creative individuals, you may have been experiencing quite a bit of flux and change in your team. In the last year, across all industries, many professionals have been changing positions.
To verify new candidates for your team, do a quick background check on all individuals. Determine any qualifications that are relevant for your business, organization, or industry. Work with a service that doesn’t require you to sign a cumbersome time contract, pay sign-up fees, or sign an exclusivity agreement.
When you have a background services company you like to work with, you’ll have a simple way to gain peace of mind about your hiring decisions. In addition to working with an experienced company, however, also engage your employees.
You may find that your staff likes to be involved in the interviewing of new team members. While your interviews may be happening remotely, this kind of involvement helps to build rapport and trust during the hiring and onboarding process.
Offer Flexible Work Options
Flexible work options are the name of the game. If you’ve been hoping for a return to “the good old days,” then you will need to adjust your expectations. More employees are now making choices about where to work, based on flexibility.
People are seeking to create a work-life balance, which means different things to different people. As you build new teams, focus on the specific individual needs and communicate your policies from the start.
Ask your employees for input and listen to what they value. This may include a diverse set of needs such as work-from-home technology support, office furnishings for home offices, and time in the headquarters.
Creative people may have needed to meet virtually in formal and informal ways. By offering flexibility to your employees, you’ll be able to attract top talent and retain the people who are making your company so unique.
Support Employee Well-Being
A good manager is looking out for his or her employees. That’s why it’s so critical to support employee well-being. When everyone was coming into your company’s headquarters, you may have supported employee wellness with a fitness center or gym.
However, during the pandemic, these facilities were often closed—and this may be continuing in your location. With more professionals working remotely or in hybrid arrangements, managers are looking for fresh ways to support wellness and well-being.
Your employees will tell you what they would value most. Explore ways to help people reduce stress, promote mental health, and achieve optimal well-being. Many companies are finding that freedom, independence, and flexibility in services give employees valuable resources.
This may include access to:
- Expert mental health professional or coach.
- Personalized coaching for mental and physical well-being.
- On-demand virtual training or webinars.
- Tips for work-life balance.
- Resources for digital wellness.
- Nutritional training.
Work with your employees, team leaders, and co-workers to develop the best resources for your people. With workplace changes, your teams’ needs will also start to evolve and change.
This could lead to providing training in virtual meeting skills, remote work, project management, or creative productivity. By actively communicating, you’ll be able to determine how to support your teams’ creativity and productivity.
